'Love & Mercy' is a different, better kind of biopic

Coolly hypnotic, “Love & Mercy” doesn’t have the common problem of many biopics, which take fascinating subjects and give them the purely unimaginative treatment. Instead, this depiction of the life of Brian Wilson only looks closely at two periods in his life, but winds up, you know, actually giving a sense of what it’s like to be him and be around him.

Maybe you just know the reclusive Beach Boy from when the band guested on an episode of “Full House.” Or you have a vague knowledge about him allegedly spending years in bed. Or you think he’s the bearded pitcher who became a star for the San Francisco Giants. (Not the same guy.) In “Love & Mercy,” Wilson (played in the ‘60s by Paul Dano and in the ‘80s by John Cusack) occasionally experiences bursts of musical inspiration and periodically suffers explosions of paranoia. He’s soft-spoken but commanding, difficult but brilliant. At least, the studio musicians he works with on “Pet Sounds” think so. The same doesn’t go for Wilson’s cousin, Beach Boys singer Mike Love (Jake Abel), who complains, “Even the happy songs are sad.”

The whole movie has that mix of joy emerging from torment and vice-versa. In the ‘80s Wilson develops a relationship with Melinda Ledbetter (Elizabeth Banks), who struggles to reconcile why a man she’s growing to love is so controlled by Dr. Landy (Paul Giamatti), who says Wilson is a paranoid schizophrenic. Co-written by Oren Moverman (“The Messenger”) and impressively directed by Bill Pohlad (making only his second film after spending the last decade producing movies including “12 Years a Slave”), “Love & Mercy” avoids traditional storytelling and consequently leaves a few elements of daily interactions under-recognized. That includes Wilson’s failed marriage and the personalities of other band members, including “Footloose” star Kenny Wormald as Wilson’s brother/Beach Boys drummer Dennis.

Still, it’s exhilarating to see a movie like this try something different, allowing its unconventional style to suit the creative mind of its inspiration. Embodying the soul of a real person, Dano and Cusack (relevant for the first time in years) are perfectly paired as a legend who is anything but the larger-than-life persona we’ve come to expect from creative icons. “That stuff doesn’t matter; it’s ego stuff,” Wilson responds when Landy asks why his star client didn’t tell Melinda that he was a Beach Boy off the bat.

Long struggling with an abusive father and resulting physical and psychological issues, Brian Wilson was and is a different breed. “Love & Mercy” captures the glorious sound and predatory noise competing to move from his head to the studio.